Pupil voice in quality assurance of schools

Highlights from the first 1,000 BERA Blog posts

The importance of quality assurance in education is established both by politicians and teachers alike. Schools embrace quality assurance primarily because they recognise its role in...

Some thoughts on the purpose of education

The UK is a divided society and many current educational systems maintain inequality and rivalry. Intergroup tensions underpin international conflict. Instead of prioritising competition and...

Shifting identities: a mixed-methods study of the experiences of teachers who are also parents

My research project, for a Doctorate in Education at Middlesex University, examines the experiences of teacher-parents in UK maintained schools, and poses the central question: What is the...

Learning Styles: living with the Monster

There have been a lot of monster metaphors in recent blog posts about Learning Styles [ http://www.tes.com.c.tes.ent.platform.sh/news/blog/why-does-idea-learning-styles-keep-getting-resurrected...

Tree of Life

The existing research indicates a need for flexible psychosocial strengths based tool well suited to working with children and adults who have had traumatic or difficult life histories. The Tree...

Accountability in prison education: a need for better-designed measures as well as more transparency

Prison education has been high on the Government’s reform agenda recently, with Michael Gove bringing a focus on the area to the Ministry of Justice from the Department for Education and...

The impact of the austerity agenda in Further Education

I don’t remember ever seeing a group of famous ex-alumni in the news protesting against cutbacks to their former schools’ funding, yet in the case of further education (FE) in England, a...

Asa Briggs – a champion of history and education

The first issue of the journal History of Education, published in 1972, was notable for the contributions of distinguished figures in the history of education itself and of social history more...

The ‘nationalisation’ of schools

White Papers are unusual nowadays. Usually Secretaries of State rush too hastily to legislation which, in consequence of the haste, creates new and unforeseen problems. the Secretary of State...

The 2016 Education White Paper – a response

Local education authorities have been a bulwark of Conservatism. They were established by Arthur Balfour’s Education Act in 1902. Their role in education was entrenched by Rab Butler’s 1944...

A return to the sociology of education?

Earlier this month, the IoE hosted a launch event for my new book, Research and Policy in Education: Evidence, ideology and impact, written with Jake Anders, Annette Hayton, Sarah Tang and Emma...

Another fine mess! The allocation of initial teacher training places for 2016

In their excoriating analysis of The Blunders of our Governments, the political scientists Anthony King and Ivor Crewe offer twelve case studies, or 'horror stories', as they call them, from the...